I liked some of the intrigue with the Salamanders in the second season, but the victimizing of Asuna is way too blunt. I suppose it's a classic "save the princess" plot, but the villains seem a bit poorly designed. They have the personalities of gang rapists, yet are apparently neuroscientists. Not as good as the first season's villain, who at least added a degree of suspense in that we didn't know how he would act in the end.

Ah, but I wish more shows had villains like the ones in Spice & Wolf. Too many shows answer the "why?" of villainy with "because he's an irrational sadist."

I'm actually enjoying the second arc more than the first. I'm guessing I'm in the minority here, but the SAO arc felt rather generic. Still very enjoyable, but I thought it got a bit weird when he quit his adventure, settled down with Asuna, got a house, and started acting like like a regular person, and not the bad ass beater that he'd been labelled as.
Alf, on the other hand, has more interesting combat ideas, though we don't get to see too much of it, Leefa is much more likeable than Asuna in my opinion, its got the underlying plot with the way the game is able to reflect on people's minds(?) and change them... Its got the main goal of rescuing Asuna too. It just seems a step up.

Dying when you die is what made the first part original? Every other anime already does that though. It doesn't make it any more dark or edgy just because its a game. Its still a work of fiction, after all...

Sorry, but if anyone is having high expectations from this show - you should try to look at it differently. Thinking highly of this show is akin to being delusional.

Lets face the facts:

Kirito is Gary Stue.

For those that don't know what a Gary Stue is, it's the male version of a Mary Sue.

A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeableness weaken the story.

Every time he has been struggling in a battle, he has called upon his Gary Stue powers to win the fight.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

Remember the last fight in the SAO MMO? That's the perfect example of Gary Stue being Gary Stue. This happened in an MMO, It doesn't matter what kind of excuses you can think of to defend the awful development in that fight. With the way Kirito fought and consequently gave up; he should have lost. But praise the Gary Stue powers, suddenly he found hidden strength in the despair of his loved one being dead and SOMEHOW managed to power-up despite being realistically dead in the mmo (Yes he was, his Health Bar was gone when he "defeated" the bad guy).

Every female character in this show who has been given a name, has fallen in love with Kirito.
No seriously, the only way to avoid falling in love with Kirito if you are a female character is to never tell your name.

The "Beater/Cheater" haters. Absolutely moronic to a degree that can't even be explained because it was so stupid.
Why the hell would you have a freaking witch-hunt against the VERY PEOPLE WHO COULD SAVE YOU FROM THE MMO??

Deus Ex Machina. Kirito gets paralysed and just as he is about to die; 'LO AND BEHOLD THERE IS ASUNA!
Just in time to rescue him from an untimely death! Phew! What a coincident!

Kirito picks the WEAKEST race, gets told illusions are useless, somehow managed to become one of the bosses from the SAO MMO and BITES A PLAYER.
Lets look at the facts again. ILLUSION. Not transformation or anything similar. ILLUSION. You shouldn't be able to hurt anyone like Kirito did with an illusion. But it's okay! Because he is Gary Stue! Therefore his spells breaks the game.

Kirito beats a highly skilled player in ALO.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

There is nothing wrong with that. Except for one detail. That player was wearing the best gear you could obtain the game so far, and Kirito was wearing VENDOR TRASH. But it's okay, thanks to his Gary Stue powers and by stealing his cousin's weapon, he powered up 1000x times and owned everyone.

Lets not forget that the creator of this show is trying to pander to every fanservice group there is.
Big boobs? Check. Loli? Check. Implied incest brother/sister love? Check (I know they are cousins, Kirito doesn't and before it was revealed nobody else did). TENTACLE RAPE? Check. Boring characters with little to no personality? Check. Make it easy for fans to self-insert into the characters? Check.

Every female character in this game apparently can't handle their own troubles. But it's okay, because Kirito is ready to save the day for the HELPLESS WOMEN.

Asuna was helpless against pressure. Asuna loves cooking (hurf durf women kitchen sandwich), she is apparently *perfect*, she is submissive towards Kirito almost all the time. Oh and lets not forget:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

I like Asuna's parents. Because they are just doing what's best for their daughter! Marrying her off to a man who is twice as old and they don't even know if she approves of it or not! Or if she loves anyone else. After all, family doesn't matter - money does. Oh and a stupid plot.

Anyway, enough about the SAO MMO.

The new bad guy in the ALO arc is the blandest shittiest bad guy ever.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

He has zero depth to his personality. It's just "haha I'm super evil! I will torment these players and get valuable mind control data, and get super rich! And I'll steal this woman from you because I can! Oh, and I might brain-wash her, because I can. There is no real motive behind. Just because I'm evil. You know. Evil. That's why. Evil and CREATING A FALSE IMPENDING DOOM OF NTR - Oh what was that about pandering to every fetish and whatnot? Yeahh......

Sorry, but the light novels are hardly better.

This show had tons of potential, but it squandered most of it because it wanted to pander to the audience sexual desires. And I'm getting tired of the SO ANGSTY Kirito. Mostly I'm just tired of him being Gary Stue.

Oh and did I mention that Kirito is an MMO addict? Because he is. Just re-watch that scene where the bartender dude shows him the ALO game. He was clearly more focused on the game itself and keen on playing it, and than rescuing Asuna - till the bartende dude just coughed to break the MMO-addiction-spell. Kirito's "flawless never back down" moral compass gets tedious as well.

At the end of the day, I only watch this show to laugh at how bad it is.

Here, have an image that sum up the current arc of SAO quite nicely:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

wow didn't expect to you pop up here, well as i stated the only thing I liked from the light novels was the horribly written sex scene.

I don't see what all the fuss is about. You've got a kid, trying to save the girl he loves. In order to do this, he has to play by the rules of the game.

I personally enjoy the storytelling. It's a fun story, one you can relate too. It has likeable characters, strong animation and music production, and while creative libteries have been taken, it MOSTLY stays..true-ish...to the light novel series.

While the SAO arc covered some psychological aspects of being trapped in a game world where death means death in-real life, the story arc was always about Kirito falling in love with Asuna, and him helping everyone escape.

And besides, you HAVE to feel bad for Suguha. Seriously. Her poor little heart. :(.

People on this site will 5/5 some of the crappiest anime I've ever seen and defend them to the death, but when something like this gets mainstream popularity suddenly it's an extremely flawed anime that needs to be dissected with a microscope.

People on this site will 5/5 some of the crappiest anime I've ever seen and defend them to the death, but when something like this gets mainstream popularity suddenly it's an extremely flawed anime that needs to be dissected with a microscope.

Silly Crunchyroll community.

If I could send beer through the internet, your PC would be overflowing with the smell of hops. I wholely agree.

Phoenixian I thought it got a bit weird when he quit his adventure, settled down with Asuna, got a house, and started acting like like a regular person

This was actually a decent "the hero gives up" moment. There is a vague sense of Kirito grappling with the same despair that led other players to committing suicide throughout the first season. There is also a sense that he has confidence issues and that his real self is at odds with the more confident and perfect character he has created and tries to be. Sadly, I think the main character's inner conflict may have been glossed over too much.

Here is a difference between story and plot, The points made by the moderator are very very good However that still does not deny the fact that sort our online is just mainstream and popular

Am I set this before but at the end of the day Sword art online is just your generic harem to be honest But what this Anime has is it has a certain flair to it which is It is a M MO RPG style that not a lot of harems have It is refreshing to see something new which the others are generic

Buy generic I mean the boy meets girl in the school uniform He sudden realization that there is this girl that surprisingly is next to him in bed

And so this is just better in a sense I am not saying that the characters are necessarily better well the girl is better that's my opinion but the male lead love she's like every other male lead but he did something for the girls to flock to him rather the girls Flock to him regardless

You might argue that this is wrong but it in this sense the main character here he provides a certain finesse to his attractiveness towards the females

But overall at the end of the day for me this anime has not caused me to rage at the main character and that's all I can ask for We all know there have been Annamae's that deserve so much more hate than this this hate is simply cost by the mainstream attractiveness of sword arts online

This post was done by Siri so any grammar well no grammar is because I use voice control to make this post so don't hammer me on that please

Sorry, but if anyone is having high expectations from this show - you should try to look at it differently. Thinking highly of this show is akin to being delusional.

Lets face the facts:

Kirito is Gary Stue.

For those that don't know what a Gary Stue is, it's the male version of a Mary Sue.

A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeableness weaken the story.

Every time he has been struggling in a battle, he has called upon his Gary Stue powers to win the fight.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

Remember the last fight in the SAO MMO? That's the perfect example of Gary Stue being Gary Stue. This happened in an MMO, It doesn't matter what kind of excuses you can think of to defend the awful development in that fight. With the way Kirito fought and consequently gave up; he should have lost. But praise the Gary Stue powers, suddenly he found hidden strength in the despair of his loved one being dead and SOMEHOW managed to power-up despite being realistically dead in the mmo (Yes he was, his Health Bar was gone when he "defeated" the bad guy).

Every female character in this show who has been given a name, has fallen in love with Kirito.
No seriously, the only way to avoid falling in love with Kirito if you are a female character is to never tell your name.

The "Beater/Cheater" haters. Absolutely moronic to a degree that can't even be explained because it was so stupid.
Why the hell would you have a freaking witch-hunt against the VERY PEOPLE WHO COULD SAVE YOU FROM THE MMO??

Deus Ex Machina. Kirito gets paralysed and just as he is about to die; 'LO AND BEHOLD THERE IS ASUNA!
Just in time to rescue him from an untimely death! Phew! What a coincident!

Kirito picks the WEAKEST race, gets told illusions are useless, somehow managed to become one of the bosses from the SAO MMO and BITES A PLAYER.
Lets look at the facts again. ILLUSION. Not transformation or anything similar. ILLUSION. You shouldn't be able to hurt anyone like Kirito did with an illusion. But it's okay! Because he is Gary Stue! Therefore his spells breaks the game.

Kirito beats a highly skilled player in ALO.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

There is nothing wrong with that. Except for one detail. That player was wearing the best gear you could obtain the game so far, and Kirito was wearing VENDOR TRASH. But it's okay, thanks to his Gary Stue powers and by stealing his cousin's weapon, he powered up 1000x times and owned everyone.

Lets not forget that the creator of this show is trying to pander to every fanservice group there is.
Big boobs? Check. Loli? Check. Implied incest brother/sister love? Check (I know they are cousins, Kirito doesn't and before it was revealed nobody else did). TENTACLE RAPE? Check. Boring characters with little to no personality? Check. Make it easy for fans to self-insert into the characters? Check.

Every female character in this game apparently can't handle their own troubles. But it's okay, because Kirito is ready to save the day for the HELPLESS WOMEN.

Asuna was helpless against pressure. Asuna loves cooking (hurf durf women kitchen sandwich), she is apparently *perfect*, she is submissive towards Kirito almost all the time. Oh and lets not forget:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

I like Asuna's parents. Because they are just doing what's best for their daughter! Marrying her off to a man who is twice as old and they don't even know if she approves of it or not! Or if she loves anyone else. After all, family doesn't matter - money does. Oh and a stupid plot.

Anyway, enough about the SAO MMO.

The new bad guy in the ALO arc is the blandest shittiest bad guy ever.

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

He has zero depth to his personality. It's just "haha I'm super evil! I will torment these players and get valuable mind control data, and get super rich! And I'll steal this woman from you because I can! Oh, and I might brain-wash her, because I can. There is no real motive behind. Just because I'm evil. You know. Evil. That's why. Evil and CREATING A FALSE IMPENDING DOOM OF NTR - Oh what was that about pandering to every fetish and whatnot? Yeahh......

Sorry, but the light novels are hardly better.

This show had tons of potential, but it squandered most of it because it wanted to pander to the audience sexual desires. And I'm getting tired of the SO ANGSTY Kirito. Mostly I'm just tired of him being Gary Stue.

Oh and did I mention that Kirito is an MMO addict? Because he is. Just re-watch that scene where the bartender dude shows him the ALO game. He was clearly more focused on the game itself and keen on playing it, and than rescuing Asuna - till the bartende dude just coughed to break the MMO-addiction-spell. Kirito's "flawless never back down" moral compass gets tedious as well.

At the end of the day, I only watch this show to laugh at how bad it is.

Here, have an image that sum up the current arc of SAO quite nicely:

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide

I agree with some of those points and I agree with the picture (mostly because I find it amusing). By the way, Kirito does know they are cousins, he's known since he was around ten or so. At least that's what the light novel said.

Asuna was important as Kirito in EPS 1-14.Now she is like background. And they covered up one of the nicest set of legs in Anime.I do find it interesting that neither Kirirto or Leafa(cousin) dont know each other in Alfhein.

But to be honest, isn't most anime wish fulfillment? Or even if it's plausible gets blown out of proportion.

Yui Hirasawa from K-On has never played a guitar, yet unknown to her possess a savant ability to play any complex riff she's just heard. Kyoko from Skip Beat "tries acting" to get back at her ex and gets cast in prodigious TV dramas - no hacking through panto for her.
Mei Tachibana from Say I Love You has the most popular guy in the school madly in love with her after she kicks him.